Your CRAFT crew is happy, because – drum roll – as of now Madelief van Ginkel (24) is an ambassador of CRAFT! Never heard of Madelief? But you have probably heard of Madestout. Under this name, Madelief is a very successful game streamer via Twitch, among other platforms. An interview with the game fanatic from Arnhem.
How did you become a streamer?
“When I was sixteen I streamed something for the first time, but actually I wasn’t ready for it at the time: of course you expose yourself on the Internet. Four years later I checked out Twitch, a platform for live streams, mainly to see if there were people who wanted to play the shooter Overwatch with me. That’s how I got more and more involved with live streams and started streaming myself.”
What games are you streaming now?
“Especially Pokémon and Animal Crossing, the somewhat calmer games. And Zelda.”
What appeals to you in streaming?
“I think the contact with the viewers. I get to know people I would never have known otherwise. Truck drivers, steelworkers, IT people… I like that.”
How much time do you spend on this?
“I stream about four to five hours a day. In addition, I put a lot of time into business contacts around promotional deals and advertising assignments. So in the end I spend quite a lot of time on it, but not everyone sees that.”
Approximately how many views do you get?
“An average per minute is about a hundred. On a stream of four or five hours, I have about two thousand in total.”
How come you get so many views?
“I think because I’m online a lot. People know they can count on me. Furthermore, I am spontaneous, I can easily bring people into the game and I respond quickly via live chat. I also make sure that people can hear and see me well. That is important because if you look purely at gameplay: I am not even that good at the games I stream. They choose me because of the conviviality.”
How well known are you? Are you recognized on the street?
“To be honest, I don’t get out much, but I don’t think I get recognized there. At events where there are a lot of gamers, I do get recognized. That’s a lot of fun!”
What do you do besides streaming? Do you study?
“I’m doing the PABO (Teacher Primary Education), but I put the course on hold because of corona. I dreaded homeschooling and thought, ‘I’m going to stream full-time, then I can save up and pick up the studies later’.”
What do you want to accomplish as an ambassador for CRAFT?
“I want to introduce people to CRAFT and make sure they actually do something with it. For example, visiting an event or sharing their knowledge themselves.”
Why CRAFT?
“I’m interested in IT myself. For example, for my studies I did the minor Scripting for designers. For that minor, we had to make an alarm system. It was really fun to do. By the way, my father and brother also work in IT.”
IT is still somewhat seen as a man’s world. What about the gaming industry?
“I think it’s slowly moving in the right direction because you see more and more women gaming and streaming. Maybe that’s also because of games like Animal Crossing, where you can decorate houses, dress up animals… If they buy a console for these kinds of games, chances are they will also look at other games that can be played on that console. This is a good development because the more women play games, the fewer women will feel unsafe in the gaming world.”
As a streamer, how do you stay on top of games and streaming in general?
“When I want to know more about cameras, audio or gameplay itself, I often go to YouTube. I know I can find useful and reliable information there. And what is YouTube to me may be CRAFT to an IT person. Of that, too, you know the information is accurate.”
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
“I would prefer to keep streaming. Someday I want to be in front of a classroom and teach, but maybe part-time so I can combine it. But streaming is still paramount right now.”
Does it give you a buzz when so many people look at you?
“On the one hand it does, on the other hand, those numbers don’t mean much to me. I don’t see the people behind those numbers anyway. It is very different in the classroom. When you have thirty children in front of you, you realize all too well: that’s a lot of kids!
